As it became known last week, after receiving permission from administrative authorities, the Satanic Temple of Iowa set up a giant statue of a Baphomet along with other Satanic imagery as part of their Holiday display inside Iowa’s Capitol. The Republican Sentinel reported: that Michael Cassidy, a Christian and former military officer, tore down and beheaded a Satanist altar erected in the Iowa Capitol as the display provoked nationwide controversy. Members of the Satanic Temple of Iowa recently received permission to install the exhibit, which included a statue depicting the idol Baphomet holding a pentacle and surrounded by candles, on the first floor of the Iowa Capitol near displays of the Nativity.
Cassidy pushed over and decapitated the statue before he discarded the head in a trash can. Cassidy said that he destroyed the shrine on Thursday in order to awaken Christians to the anti-Christian acts promoted by our government. ”The world may tell Christians to submissively accept the legitimization of Satan, but none of the founders would have considered government sanction of Satanic altars inside Capitol buildings as protected by the First Amendment. Anti-Christian values have steadily been mainstreamed more and more in recent decades, and Christians have largely acted like the proverbial frog in the boiling pot of water.”
The Satanic Temple of Iowa responded by writing: ”This morning authorities informed us that the Baphomet statue in our holiday display was destroyed beyond repair. We are proud to continue our holiday display for the next few days that we have been allotted. We ask that for safety, visitors travel together and use the 7 Tenets as a reminder for empathy, in the knowledge that justice is being pursued the correct way, through legal means.” They concluded their statement by writing, ”Hail Satan!” Please keep in mind this is the same Iowa where a local Fire Department was forced to take down their creche, which they had displayed at Christmas time for over the past ten years. This was at the insistence of the Freedom from Religion group in a suit brought by someone who doesn’t even live in that town…
